The Obamas are in their hometown this week, and offered the city its first peek of the future Obama Presidential Center, which will be built on a 200,000-square-foot campus in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, and is expected to cost $500 million.

Gee! Where did that come from? I have never mocked PM holders–I am one of them plus I have been on this forum for over 18 yrs thru all its incarnations starting with Vronsky–I always though u were a buddy–we’ve had congenial exchanges for years–I apologize if I gave the wrong impression. Buygold, please do not leave the forum!

Meaningless Data Stokes the Insanity

Posted Wednesday, May 3, at 7:56 p.m. ET

With Q1 earnings season behind us, the thoughtful observer can only shake his head over Wall Street’s feverish obsession with meaningless financial data. It’s obvious that few investors even remotely care about the quality of corporate earnings any longer, only whether those earnings come in a few pennies higher or lower than predicted. But that doesn’t begin to capture the insanity of the game, for stocks are being pushed to ridiculous heights for reasons unrelated to corporate performance. Share buybacks are a powerful contributor to the illusion of wealth. Companies with billions in surplus cash borrow vast additional sums for practically nothing in order to buy back their own shares. The effect is to drive earnings multiples higher without producing any economic growth — other than enriching insiders who hold stock options and receive performance bonuses. In my most recent conversation with Howe Street’s Jim Goddard, I discuss this and other topics, including the potentially deflationary impact of 3D printers.

Cool your jets, old soldier! We’ve all been thru this. This market can stay irrational longer than most of us can stay sane! I gave up paper years ago. Now I have a ‘bit addiction’… primarily because it cannot be manipulated by TPTB. But I wouldn’t give up my physical for anything. It’s the ultimate money of last resort.

“Maybe Bitcoin, as dangerous as it seems, really is better than the barbarous relic.”

I would argue that Bitcoin IS the new, digital, ‘barbarous relic’! Look at what it is doing to banking and transactions. And these are still the ‘early adopters’. What will the masses do to this chart?

What we can best hope for is experienced guys to help guide us. True, you hope they have your best interest in mind right? Like R640?

Unfortunately, in markets like gold and anything involving money, that’s not what we get. What we get is graft, we get folks proposing to help but intending to fleece. Folks that will convince you to go left when you should have stayed right all along.

These markets, all of them, are nothing but mechanisms to steal what’s been earned from the sweat of a man’s brow.

Some get lucky, most get fleeced.

My spot as admin is open, I’m sure especially Floridagold, but also Ipso and Wanka would love to have you in my place.

I’ve had enough of scum like R640, mocking pm holders. Make him tell you what he does for a living. Go back to the video I posted of Ronald Bernard the whistle blower. These folks have no empathy, they have no souls, they are psychopaths.

The first of two key events affecting financial markets this week, this month’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, has just concluded. On Friday, the Department of Labor will release its jobs report, containing data about new jobs added in April. Based on a survey by Reuters, economists expect the April count to include 175,000 added jobs.

According to statements released immediately following the conclusion of today’s meeting, the Federal Reserve voted unanimously to maintain its key interest rate, the Fed funds rate, which is currently fixed between 0.75 and 1.00%. The Fed sta

tement cited a sluggish economy which grew only 0.7% in the first quarter of 2017.

No Stealth Rate Hike

One topic devoid of any real details was balance sheet liquidation, the Fed’s plan to begin to liquidate some of its assets. This issue contains the greatest amount of uncertainty as such a move by the Fed would be the first ever occurrence, and as such, lacks any real quantifiable data to base analysis upon.

As reported by CNBC, “The FOMC did not address an issue of increasing concern in the market – its $4.5 trillion balance sheet on which it stores its bond portfolio. Fed officials have indicated that it will change its policy of reinvesting proceeds from its holdings, a move they say would be tantamount to a series of interest rate hikes. However, officials have not set forth a plan over how that will happen.”

Comment: Perhaps a clue ? Expect all HE** to break lose if/when the Fed announces the unwinding of their balance sheet. Is this the reason for the PM Bash?

Guess I am totally at loss to come up with any ‘reasonable’ explanations for the action in the Gold and Silver prices.

After 15 years of following the PM Markets I would like to think I have some ‘feel’, an educated guess even, at how these markets move. Today just totally blew any misconception that I might know something.

Feeling a bit more relaxed after a good dinner, but have this tiny knot in my gut called fear. Either ‘They’ are just showing us who is still boss and beat us senseless for fun, OR, ‘They’ know/see something on the horizon that is going to be very Good for the PM’s. ??

Keeping the JDST/JNUG insurance policies up to date and HOPEFULLY, they will serve as some protection against the lunatics manning the bop lever. I got very lucky today.

Agree 100% with you on the views of the Oasis. Overall, a friendly and informative place to hang one’s hat. What do you know about making fishing flies? I may need to take up a new hobby to focus my attention away from the PM’s for awhile. 🙂

Glad to have some experienced guys like you to help guide us and keep a calm head. Thanks !

“It’s not what I don’t know that gets me into the most trouble, it’s what I Think I know that creates the worst troubles.” Paraphrase of someone wise.

Remember, I always joked about switching the theme of this blog to Fly casting–or carving duck decoys–or stamp collecting? Doesn’t seem like a joke anymore.

How bout having bought Amazon at 8 bucks in 2000–?? Better’n gold! I should stop following it but I have developed a feel for it and am exclusively trading NUGT–I traded CBOT PM futures for years–NUGT is better and much much less of a hassle–and seems relatively tame compared to futures. besides, there’s the old dog/new tricks angle–and the cheerful bonhomie** of this august forum…

The Obamas are in their hometown this week, and offered the city its first peek of the future Obama Presidential Center, which will be built on a 200,000-square-foot campus in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side, and is expected to cost $500 million.

“Gold under pressure ahead of the Federal Reserve announcement but according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Mike McGlone, not much will happen. “The biggest risk from the fed is if they come out ‘very aggressive’ about further interest rate hikes which is fairly unlikely,” he told Kitco News on the sidelines of the Mines & Money conference in New York. McGlone added he is really watching the volatility index — VIX — which is trading at lows from 2007, which could suggest a reversal is in order. A higher VIX would spark safe-haven demand in gold, he explained.”

the HUI=186.89-0.03 (-0.02%). At close: 4:04PM EDT–that is amazing with gold down $18 and would be a bullish divergence in any other commodity–but not with gold.

Farmboy=NUGT in after hours is 15.75–that’s a big 2 bucks off its day high.

Remember, I always joked about switching the theme of this blog to Fly casting–or carving duck decoys–or stamp collecting? Doesn’t seem like a joke anymore.

How bout having bought Amazon at 8 bucks in 2000–?? Better’n gold! I should stop following it but I have developed a feel for it and am exclusively trading NUGT–I traded CBOT PM futures for years–NUGT is better and much much less of a hassle–and seems relatively tame compared to futures. besides, there’s the old dog/new tricks angle–and the cheerful bonhomie** of this august forum…

I followed my plan for the day. Sold my JDST this morning for a small profit. Bought a couple hundred more shares of JNUG expecting a rise after the Fed speak. Took a nap, woke up at 3:00 fgrom a nice nap, looked at the charts, looked at the trading account and went (&^*^%$#!!!). Sold off all but a hundred shares of JNUG, turned around and bought back the JDST, and ended up the day with some beer money in the account.

Was tempted at 3:30 to sell some of my core PM stocks, MUX was down 7 %. But thought “Hell NO!”. LUCKY for me, JDST came through and covered what would have been a major loss in my portfolio. Folks can bitch all they want about the ‘merits’ of ETFs, but without them, I would be sitting with major losses instead of a couple hundred up today.

I have new motto for the next four years. “Learn to Thrive in Chaos, or Perish.” I am still in a learning curve with the ETF thing, but today, it saved my arse. Better lucky than good.

Trying to figure out the PM markets is like trying to understand a women. Aint no Rhyme or Reason, Just She is Always Right!”

Gold broke its 50 MA and looks like it could Be headed back to $1200. Wash, rinse, repeat. As far as TSLA, big boy firms will probably raise their estimates and proclaim its a screaming buy. The game is so rigged, but will continue because it can.

I’m not seeing the point in holding the one set of assets that the money powers absolutely control because it is such a threat to the system and their fiat survival. We can sit here and say that when SHTF it’s going to payoff to have insurance. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the SHTF a couple of times in the last two decades and all we’ve seen is underperformance. I’m not talking about nukes flying, but no doubt we’ve seen financial crisis.

Really feeling like I missed the boat not selling shares in 06′ and physical in 2011.

I don’t know. I don’t see anything changing and not to blame Trump, but certainly nothing changing with regulation under his leadership.

I thought Facebook was expensive at $40, Tesla looked interesting at $30, my kid told me to buy AAPL at $80 several years ago pre-split. WTF? Why am I one of the only non-thinking investors on the planet? Why screw with something that nobody cares about, wants or needs?

Maybe Bitcoin, as dangerous as it seems, really is better than the barbarous relic.